Red Room Where the Writers Are

Yesterday, I wrote a fairly long blog about why we celebrate Independence Day. I figured it would be my final blog of the week, but when I finished, something didn't feel right. It's sitting in my draft folder now, unused.

It took me some time to figure out just what it was that I wasn't comfortable with. I'd written patriotic blogs before, thanking our veterans and extolling the virtues of the good ol' USA, so why wasn't I comfortable with this blog?

The answer came to me last night when I was watching the township fireworks display with my family. For the first time in my life, I felt the holiday was about the fireworks and the barbecue, and nothing else. It felt...empty.

Don't get me wrong. I thank God for what those rag tag armies and brave farmers did more than 200 years ago. I thank God for every soldier that has sacrificed - or even been willing to sacrifice - his or her life to allow me to write what I'm writing, to allow us to vote, to allow us to pursue the life we want to pursue. But there was this underlying feeling that soon, all that fighting, all those sacrifices were to be in vain.

Each day another liberty is taken from us. With every law that tells you you can't sell your home until a government inspector tells you it meets their GREEN standards (cap and trade), or you can only use so much electricity or be charged a fine, or that you MUST buy healthcare or be fined, or that you can only make so much money, or you can only drive a certain type of car, or you can only own a radio station if you're not presenting views that differ from the President's, we lose liberty. With every international treaty considered, we lose liberty (the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child would allow the courts to tell you how you are allowed to parent your child). With every bill that tells us we MUST volunteer and who we can and can't volunteer for, we lose liberty. With every czar that Obama appoints to make these things happen (we're currently at 28, I believe: TARP, Border, Intelligence, Terrorism, Energy, Urban Affairs, Weapons, Technology, AIDS, Great Lakes, Health, Stimulus Accountability, Faith-based, Pay, Guantanamo Closure, Sudan, Afghanistan, Science, Jobs, Drug, Information, Mideast Peace, Car, Mideast Policy, WMD, Climate, Regulatory, and Economic), we lose liberty. By the way, the new Regulatory Czar believes animals should have the right to sue a person in court - animals should get rights before unborn children do. I'm not a strict Pro-Lifer, but this concept of animals getting rights before unborn human children infuriates me.

The soldiers of the United States have fought and died to provide us a country where we can enjoy inalienable rights - the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Inalienable means given to us by God, a higher being, or just by the very fact of our existence - depending on what it is you believe. Since no man or government has given us these rights, no man or government can take them away. Notice though, it says nowhere that I am guaranteed a home, an education, a car, healthcare, or a check from the government if I choose to do nothing with my life. I am guaranteed the PURSUIT - this means that I need to work to get the things I want. I have no RIGHT to them. And nowhere in the US Constitution does it guarantee us any of those things as man or government-given rights, nor does it give ANYONE the right to TAKE those things FROM me. But somewhere along the line, people came to believe that if somebody produced more than them, they deserved a cut. If somebody earned more than them, they deserved a cut. To me, Ayn Rand hit the nail on the head when she called these people looters. Where would these people be if the producers, the profit makers, went on strike as they do in Atlas Shrugged? They would continue to cannibalize each other until there was nothing left - until everybody was 100% dependent on the government.

And I believe this is the ultimate goal of this administration. Get more and more people dependent on government. The more people dependent on government, the longer the Democrats stay in power. Control industry, destroy the producers, get more people on the government payroll, get more people in unions, provide amnesty to illegal immigrants. Let no man be responsible for himself. Make each person a part of a group - black, gay, poor, immigrant, Hispanic, because as a part of one of these groups you serve as a base of power - realize your own individuality, realize that you can help yourself, and you no longer serve a purpose to them. So they will do whatever they can to keep you from helping yourself and disguise it as if it's for your own good.

So, on this Independence Day, I am praying that things turn around, because as it stands now, I fear we are headed in a terrible direction. The media is supposed to be the watchdog of the U.S. Government. They are supposed to inform the people of what is going on, but they've done little more than stump for Obama and publicly MOCK U.S. citizens for exercising their constitutional right to protest. Sure, some cracks are starting to form (Helen Thomas, who's been covering the White House for the Associated Press since Kennedy's Administration told White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs the other day that no administration has tried to control the media like the Obama Administration - not even Nixon's), but is it too little too late?

So, while I thank the brave men and women who have given us our freedom over the years, I apologize to them, as well, for allowing the government to even get to a point where the IDEA that those sacrifices could have been in vain is a reality. I feel we are on the verge of failing them. I feel we are on the verge of failing our children.

I pray there is time to set this right, but with Obama in the White House, a filibuster-proof House of Representatives, the Dems holding a Super Majority in the Senate, and a media that won't seem to question anything they do, I think we're going to continue to lose liberties. I'd say I can't wait until 2012, or even 2016, but if there isn't a backlash in the 2010 Congressional elections, I have a sinking feeling in 2016, we're going to see President Obama seeking a THIRD term in office and a whole lot of impoverished people dependent on the government dime.

Let freedom ring.

J.E. Braun is the author of Paranoia, a 9/11 survivor's tale. 10% of profits from sales of Paranoia will be donated to the Twin Towers Orphan Fund (www.ttof.org). For more information, see www.jebraun.com.